Gears Of War: The Gear Chronicles
by xXChrisdabeastXx
Summary: Follow the Story of Hunter Squad as they battle the Locust on multiple fronts and in numerous battles, I don't own Gears of War though i do own the characters that are in Hunter and a few other squads. Chapter Four is UP!
1. FNG

F.N.G

Sera

A month and a half after the lightmass Offensive

Apartment Complex in Northern Jacinto

Beep! Beep! Beep! Smash! Christopher Hylton rose from his small 6 and a half foot by 3 feet bed and groaned.

"Shit," he said to himself looking at the clock. It read 5:30 AM. For the last week Hunter squad, Chris's squad had been on leave. Chris had enjoyed it greatly, waking up at 8:30 every morning and pretty much being free. He especially liked not having to fight the wretched locust horde.

But now that was over and it was time for Chris to be a soldier of the COG, Coalition of Ordered Governments, a Gear as the troops were called. Gears were the backbone and fighting force of the COG. They undergo rigorous physical training to achieve top physical shape, and even have taken a sort of steroids to increase their muscle size.

Gears were big and they were once described as "walking tanks." Chris was no exception. He was about 6'4 and weighed easily over two hundred pounds. His muscle capacity was thick with every bulge and strand seemed to perfection.

After going to the bathroom to relieve himself and shave, Chris ate some stale breakfast cereal and had some orange juice. Going back into his bed room to put on his Gear armor. The armor was gray, exceptionally bulky and has a sort of hunch backed sort of look to it. Not many of the current gears in the COG where this kind of armor and Chris was happy he was unique. He put the armor over his head until it rested snuggly on his shoulders and then he sealed it up through the two large circular seals on the chest then quickly making sure his black do-rag was tightly wrapped around his head he headed out of his three story apartment building and onto the streets of Jacinto.

The sun hadn't even risen yet. It was a short walk to the Mag-lev train station. As he walked onto the platform he took notice of the other people there. They were civilians; there was an old man of maybe 60 and a young girl of maybe 15-16. They gave him a look of terror and respect as he sat down on the bench nearest to the edge of the platform.

"That's weird," Chris thought to himself as he eyed the young lady through his peripheral vision. Women of that age usually weren't allowed out at this time and they usually were at the breeding farms, sadly getting induced at such a young age.

Ever since E-day (Emergency Day), the day the locust came up out of their emergency holes and attacked the surface of Sera almost 15 years ago, nothing had been the same. Almost every physically fit male from 16 to about 45 had to serve usually in the COG military. And every female usually got put in some desk job or was a breeder. Chairman Prescott had said that everyone had to play a part in order to ensure humanities survival, humph he wasn't thinking about humanities survival when he had over 90% of the planets surface scorched in a foolish attempt to stop the Locust. Though it had slowed the locust down it hadn't stopped them and for 15 years humanity has been in a constant war with the locust. No not a war more of just trying to survive against the genocidal tactics and ways of the unstoppable locust.

That was until the Lightmass Offensive a month and a half ago. There Chris and hundreds of other Gears were able to enter the locust controlled city of Ephyra, give covering support to both Delta and Alpha squads as they relocated the sonic resonator, then went to East Timigad to give more fire support then they banged out on King Ravens, just as the Lightmass Bomb went off killing "a whole rack of squashed face grubs" as Chris's sergeant had said. They hadn't gone without casualties though. Dozens of Gears lost their lives in that battle, including one of Chris's squad mates, but it had been for a good cause and Chris would of gladly gave his life to defeat the locust.

Though the locust weren't completely defeated, they had been drastically weakened with a few pockets of heavy resistance left. And Gears were still dying almost everyday, but the war was now in humanities favor.

The Mag-lev train pulled into the station slowly then came to a complete stop, Chris and the other two people on the platform entered the train. He sat in the farthest car to the back, not wanting to keep being stared at by the others.

As the train slowly began to move he slowly drifted into slumber. It was another 20 minutes riding through the barely lit city before they came to the base. The base station was much more packed then the one near his apartment. It was packed, despite it being only 6:15, with military personnel going every which way. Gears in their bluish armor guarding the base and running their daily routines. Intelligence officers and crew working on their small laptops or talking over ear pieces, and the occasional civilian just working a regular maintenance job or just passing through. Whatever the reason they were all rotating gears part of a machine that if it stopped working humanity might fail.

Chris began to make his way through the crowd. Bumping into people, apologizing and saluting to higher ranking Gears. He occasionally would make small talk with a few gears that would come up to him, though at first he couldn't recognize them due to the helmets they had, but once they started talking he would know who was who. But he couldn't talk for long as he had a 6:30 meeting with a new member of their squad.

He made his way to the central court yard of the base, which was no easy feat as the hallways were kind of small and the Gears armor was quite big a thick. But after a few minutes of intense walking he finally came to the court yard. It was barely lit only by the grayness of the clouds. There were a few people in the courtyard, but only one Gear and he made his way over to that Gear.

***

Private Damon Myles sat on a bench in the center of the large courtyard next to an aging sycamore tree. He tussled his blonde hair a little in boredom. He had been in the courtyard waiting since 6:00 and now it was almost 6:30. He fiddled with the optics of his Lancer Assault Rifle. After making sure the optics were on tight he took a rag out of his duffle bag on the floor next to him and began to clean the chainsaw attachment of the Lancer, taking care not to cut himself on the blades. After cleaning his gun thoroughly for the second time in the last half hour he decided to take another quick look around to see if he could find this Corporal Hylton.

He glanced around and saw the same type of people he had been seeing for the last 30 minutes. Just regular people all in their work clothes, but as his eyes went pass the north entrance he noticed a Gear. This Gear was black and was wearing a black do- rag around his head. He had a few scars on his face and he seemed exceptionally tired with bags under his eyes. Damon took note that he wore armor unlike anything he's seen before. It was dark gray with a hunched backpack type thing on it. The black under suit didn't even cover up is arms completely, stopping around the wrist. Damon wanting to look like a true COG soldier quickly adorned his helmet which completely encased his head and face.

Chris swaggered up to the young gear and eyed him with pity. Before the Gear had put on his helmet Chris had spotted his face, and quickly took in features. This gear was young maybe no older then 18 as were most recruits. He had wavy blonde hair and a innocent looking face with blue eyes.

"You Damon Myles?" Chris asked as he stood in front of the young Gear. Being a whole head shorter Damon had to look up to see the black mans face, "yessir, Private Damon Myles at your service." Instinct took over as he raised his hand in a salute, so much instinct that he forgot he was holding his rifle and dropped it on the marble floor. The gun discharged and fired a quick burst into the nearby wall as it hit the floor. Everyone in the room ducked and a few women gave out cries of surprise.

"Keep that damn thing on safety Rookie, before you get someone killed!" Chris said angrily. Turning to the other people in the room he apologized. "Follow me now!"

"Sorry," Damon said embarrassed as he picked up his Lancer and quickly clicked the safety on, and then began to follow Chris. Chris turned his head and looked towards where Damon's duffle bag lay, "and don't forget that." Damon once more embarrassed for forgetting something like that turned and picked up his duffle bag then jogged after the fast moving Corporal.

Without turning around Chris smirked, "Welcome to Hunter, your just more meat for the grinder."


	2. The Mission

The Mission

Damon followed Chris intently, not trying to lose him in the hustle and bustle of the people coming and going through the base. "So Corporal Hylton how many grubs have you kill? I heard that you and your squad took part in the Lightmass Offensive, you must've taken down a whole shitload," Damon said with a hint of excitement. Chris's answer quelled any excitement Damon had. "Yea I killed a lot of grubs, a shitload you can even call it, but I don't count much grubs I kill I count it by the number of men I'm able to bring home intact."

Damon stood there for a moment stunned, before continuing with the black Gear in silence.

The duo went through many passages and corridors until they came to a door that was made of pure metal. It had to be at least 3 inches thick and two Gears stood guard outside it, their eyes following Damon and Chris's movements as they approached.

"Halt! Do you have clearance to be in this sector?" one of the guards asked. Reaching into his pocket and pulling out a card Chris showed the guard his clearance ID. Motioning towards Damon he said, "He's with me, he's a rookie and doesn't have a clearance card yet."

The two guards stepped aside and let Chris insert his ID card into a key slot. The doors opened with a hiss and groan as they slid slowly apart to reveal the darkened interior. As both Chris and Damon entered one of the guards smirked at Damon and said, "Rookie eh? Well looks like we have more meat for the Grinder." Damon shuddered on the inside as that was the second time he had heard that phrase said to him in the last 30 minutes.

The room inside was quite vast with an array of computer panels on the wall and a few laptop like devices sitting on the floor and countertops. Two Gears were sitting in the chairs that lined the wall of the place. One male, one female.

"Chris, where the hell have you been?" asked the male with a slight Latino accent. Chris crossed the room and then locked arms with the Latino Gear, "I have been doing your mom," he said with a smile then looked over to where Damon stood, "That's the new guy he's a little green behind the ears," Chris whispered into the other's ear.

Chris turned towards Damon, "Rookie get over here and meet the rest of the squad, ON THE DOUBLE!!" Damon obeyed instantly and jogged over to where the others were gathered. Motioning to the Latino Gear he said, "This is your new commanding officer, Sergeant Christian Espinosa."

Christian was about 6 feet tall with a very dark complexion. He had a five o'clock shadow and long kind of curly black hair. He was a little bit more built then Chris was but both still looked menacing as people.

Christian shook Damon's outstretched hand and said, "You can call me Sarge." "Or Cspos for that matter," this was coming from the female Gear who he still hadn't been introduced to yet. She swaggered over and playfully shoved Christian aside. "The name's Marissa Mayuga."

Marissa was the cutest girl Damon had ever seen. She was about 5 and a half feet, which was pretty small for a Gear even a girl. She was as muscular looking as a girl her sized could probably get. She had auburn hair tied up into a short ponytail. By her color and name Damon came to the conclusion she was from one of the South Islands. She was wearing a much slimmer version of the COG armor it looked a lot like Chris's without the hunchback.

"Well if you are all settled and acquainted I would like to start the mission briefing." Said a gruff voice from behind the Gears.

They all turned around to see Colonel Victor S. Hoffman standing before them. He was huge. Standing at 6 feet 4 inches he was the biggest Gear in the room. His face was lined with a text book tough guy attitude. He was wearing the standard military dress coat with his Colonel stars lining the side of his collar strap.

Next to the Colonel was an oriental woman of about maybe 20-30 she was as short as Marissa and not as built but she still big for her size. She had a really cute face a short brownish hair in a bun.

Damon took notice that she gave a barely noticeable nod towards Chris, who returned it in similar fashion. "This is Tammy Li she will be your communications officer," Hoffman said mainly to Damon since he was the newest one of the squad.

The lights dimmed and the main screen of the TV screens in the back turned on to show a map of their planet, Sera. Using a pointing stick Hoffman pointed to a spot on the continent of Tyrus, where Jacinto Plateau was located. "This is the Argenes Forest. It is located about 30 minutes from the town of Landown if you use a King Raven."

Hunter squad all tuned into the briefing intently. Hoffman continued, "Gamma one – one was sent here a week ago to set up a listening post." Christian piped up, "What was Gamma one doing setting up a listening post in the middle of some woods." "There have been a number of Locust sightings within the last month and we sent them in to see if there is any major locust build up in the area," Hoffman answered, he turned to Tammy and said, "Miss Li will inform you of the rest of your mission."

Tammy stepped forward and cleared her throat, "We lost contact with Gamma one about two days ago and right now we fear the worst has happened." Hoffman put in his two cents quickly, "Though we are sure those Gears kicked some fine locust ass." Tammy looking quite an annoyed at being interrupted continued, "that's where you come in Hunter squad. Your mission is to insert as close to Gammas listening post as we can possibly get you and see if Gamma is still there."

"What if they aren't there?" Chris asked.

"Then you will report back to us ASAP and we will pick you up. If they are there then you will provide reinforcements to their numbers, and Corporal Hylton please let me finish next time before you open your big mouth," she said with a slight smile on her face. Chris kept quiet and returned the smile.

"When do we leave?" asked Sergeant Espinosa.

It was Hoffman who responded, "In 0200 hours that should give you plenty of time to get your weapons and get ready, is there anymore questions." The whole squad stayed quiet. "Then good luck on your mission I want to see you all back here, Hunter squad you are dismissed."

All four members of Hunter snapped off a salute then proceeded to exit the building to prep for the mission.

Two hours later Chris and Christian were walking onto the helipad. The King Raven chopper they were using was already starting its engines and kicking up dust. The chopper was about 100 yards away, and the two Gears were conversing heavily.

"So what do you think my chances are at Tammy giving me head?" Chris laughed. Christian however was being more serious, "pretty good if you ever get her."

"Yea I will eventually but we got to be incognito about it, like you and Marissa." Chris replied. Christian looked around to see if anybody was trying to ease drop on their conversation before saying, "Me n' Marissa are getting pretty serious I was thinking of giving her this." He pulled out of his ammo pouch a ring with a decent sized diamond on it. Chris's eyes were locked onto the diamond. He snapped out of his trance and said, "You aren't thinking of popping the question to her are you, you guys are getting way to serious, you know the COG's rule on fraternization, you both could end up in the Slab."

Christian simply smiled and put the ring back into his pocket. Shouldering his Gnasher Shotgun he said, "Fuck the COG, they can't afford to loss anymore Gears and they won't put us in jail over something as petty as love," he joked. "Plus the Slab was destroyed shortly before The Lightmass Offensive, good thing Major H. got all those prisoners out," he said trying to change the subject.

Chris not really wanting to bring it back up remarked, "Yea they brought back Marcus Fenix, that guy was hardcore to the bone. You here how he and Dom took out that locust leader on the Tyro Pillar and was able to set off the Lightmass Bomb."

"Yea I'm happy he's on our side and not the locust." Anymore conversation was silenced by the whir of the Ravens blades. Christian went on and sat next to Marissa, Chris sat across from him next to the rookie.

"What were you two boys talking about?" Marissa asked. Chris and Christian looked at each other. "Awe you know boy's stuff," said Christian as the King Raven lifted off the pad. Now the mission really began.


	3. Charlie Don't Surf

Charlie Don't Surf

The skyscrapers and buildings of Jacinto soon turned to the wilderness of Tyrus. The King Raven accelerated to nearly 100 miles per hour. Chris watched intently wondering how after 79 years of fighting the UIR in the Pendulum Wars and 15 years of Genocidal fighting against the Locust how anything as beautiful as the landscape below could still exist on a war torn world such as Sera. He looked over at the Sarge and Marissa; both were sitting awfully close to each other. He would have to remark to Cspos later about that. If the two didn't want to get got then they would have to separate sometimes. He looked back outside at the view and he slowly began to accept the sleepiness that was overcoming him. "Corporal Hylton," Chris opened his eyes and glared at the rookie who had awoken him. "What kid?" he growled back.

"How long have you guys been Gears?" he asked everyone, though he somehow had to wake Chris up to ask everyone. "We have all been in the same squad for about 13 years," Marissa who had taken a small liking to the rookie answered.

"Wow 13 years you guys are lucky to even survive that long, let alone have all your squad members." Damon took note of the face of sorrow Marissa quickly gave before returning to her normal self.

"We weren't just a squad of three we a had a couple other members over the years," Sergeant Espinosa said slowly lowering his voice, "they didn't make it, I guess we were the lucky ones." Damon realizing that he should change the subject turned to corporal Hylton and asked, "So what did you do before the locust came?"

Chris who had been quiet since the start of the conversation looked out of the open doorway of the KR and replied, "I was a student, like most kids my age, I was going to follow my fathers' footsteps and become a Gear." He stopped and looked at his Lancer then continued, "Then when the locust came, my father went off to fight them, but about a week after he left we got his COG tags, he had died fighting the hard battle." Chris ended his story with that.

Chris closed his eyes indicating he was "sleeping" and didn't want anymore questions asked. The rookie got the hint and went to looking at the vast terrain of Sera.

_Chris opened his eyes and looked up at a graying sky. "What the hell happened?" he groaned out loud. He could taste blood in his mouth and he felt like a few bees had stung him in his arms. "Shit, Chris is ok," he heard someone say over the TAC com; he recognized the voice as one of his good friends and squad mates, Ricky Thai. "Chris get your ass over now!" Sergeant Espinosa yelled. _

_ Chris looked to his right and saw the three members of his squad taking cover behind a pair of rundown cars, tracer rounds pinged off the car hood, Ricky blind fired from his Lancer. Now he remembered the locust had ambushed his squad near Citadel Park in Ephyra. It was about 6 hours into the Lightmass Offensive and Hunter and other squads had met minimal resistance from the locust. The squads split up to cover more ground, Hunter had been sent to Citadel Park to push any locust north away from where Alpha and Delta were supposed to set up the sonic resonator. They were about halfway through the park when a bolo grenade landed about 10 feet away from the squad. Chris who was the closest took the most from the blast, but due to it being so far away it had little effect except for knocking him to the ground and a few shrapnel pieces into his arms._

_ Chris knew being in the open like this was suicide. He picked himself up with effort then he crawled his way over where the others were in cover. "What's the skinny?" he asked the Sarge. Christian put a fed a few more shots into his Gnasher shotgun before replying, "we got about a dozen locust grubs in the visitors center, they got us pretty badly pinned, we need to get fire dominance on this situation." Chris checked his Lancer before nodding to his Sarge. "Suppressive FIRE!"_

_ Chris balanced his lancer on the front of the cars bumper and began shooting in quick controlled burst at the small rectangular building that the locusts were using as cover. Christian blind fired his shotgun hoping to get a kill. Behind the other car Marissa placed her Longshot sniper rifle between the rear door frames and began taking precise shots while Ricky covered her with his lancer._

_ Ricky dipped back down behind the car to reload, and noticed a few locusts sprinting behind the restroom building. "Locust, Sergeant pincer movement 3' o clock!" he yelled firing his lancer at the locust, who sprinted to not get caught out in the open. Christian dipped back down and yelled, "Ricky, Chris get those bastards, don't let them flank us, we will hold these ones off."_

_ Chris and Ricky broke cover and crouch sprinted over to where the restroom building and another building created a sort of alleyway. The two Gears stacked up on either side of the alley. Ricky took out a bolo grenade and nodded to Chris. He threw the grenade into the alley and dipped back around the corner as it went off. _

_ Chris peered around the alley with his lancer raised. The grenade had caused the walls from both buildings to collapse into the alley, effectively plugging it up. "Clear," he said. He was about to turn to high five Ricky when he noticed the locust coming over the crest of the hill behind them. Turning Ricky around he yelled, "Shit they went all the way around."_

_ Five locust grenadiers were charging down the hill firing their Hammerburst rifles at the two Gears. Chris and Ricky both were caught out in the open with inferior numbers, it was a situation no Gear ever wanted to be in. It was a hopeless situation and both Chris and Ricky knew it, but they were going to take as much of the grubs as possible. Chris screamed a primal scream as he fired his lancer at the incoming locust, Ricky followed suit. He just fired from the hip not even aiming as he sprayed along the locust, soon one fell then another and another. To his surprise Chris they had all been killed before they had even stepped foot off the hill. He looked over to give Ricky a high five but stopped. _

_ Ricky Thai lay dead on the ground, a wound through his head. Chris dropped his lancer and knelt next to his friend. He closed Ricky's eyes and took his COG tags. Suddenly he began to openly weep. He couldn't control it and he couldn't stop, he just wept. "Chris!" he heard someone yell, he looked down and Ricky's eyes opened and he was talking to Chris. Chris leapt back as Ricky rose and said, "Get up boii!"_

Chris opened his eyes to see Christian crouching in front of him, "Pilot said five to dirt, get prepped." Chris looked around the passenger compartment of the KR. The squad was all prepping for the mission now. Checking ammo, doing last minute cleaning and making sure their gear was squared away.

Chris went through his own procedures. He took the ammo cartridge out of his lancer, blew on it and the spot where it went into the lancer, he did this so that the weapon won't jam. He checked that he had all the ammo for his snub pistol, and he then felt part of his upper right chest armor to make sure that his combat knife was there. It wasn't the standard gear combat knife, it was black handled, and it spotted a 6 inch blade. The blade was made from the same deposits that made up Jacinto Plateau. The knife had been given to Chris by his father. That day was the last he had seen of his father as he died a few days later fighting the Locust shortly after E-Day.

The King Raven began to decelerate as they came to their LZ. Chris looked out the side and saw that their LZ was a clearing among the trees. The KR did one lap around the clearing and then began to descend towards its middle.

"Alright Hunter, when we land get your asses to the cover of those trees, Marissa and I will head out left, Chris you take the rookie and go to the right," Chris nodded as the Sarge continued, "When you get to the trees move north and we will form up on the far side, from there we will move in a staggered line forward, got it?"

"Sir Yessir!" the Rookie yelled.

"Hell yea!" Cried Marissa.

Chris just nodded and raised his hand in a fist; Christian responded by raising his hand in a fist and the two pounded, "Let's do this."

Damon heart was pounding and his adrenaline was running through his veins. The King Raven came down with a thud and the pilot said, "Good luck hunting, Hunter squad." Sergeant Espinoza and Marissa went out first through the left, Damon waited until Corporal Hylton went out then he followed him out.

They dropped into a crouched position with their rifles forward, as the chopper began to ascend into the air Corporal Hylton began to roadie run towards the tree line, Damon crouched low and began to sprint after him. They reached trees and stacked up on the dark brown bark. Chris made a hand signal to Damon to follow him.

The two gears moved from tree to tree barely visible in the light of the slowly setting sun. Damon felt his heart pounding as if it wanted to burst out. He tried his best to stay with the corporal but Chris was moving pretty fast. Then suddenly Chris halted, Damon almost ran into him. "Shhh, be quiet rookie," Chris said nodding over in the direction he was staring.

Damon looked but couldn't see anything, "What is it?" Chris didn't reply, instead he placed his lancer on the ground and tapped his earpiece twice. "Cspos, this is Chris we got two drones about 70 yards in front of us, how do want us to proceed?" he said staring straight ahead.

Christians voice was barely audible as he responded, "We got a few grubs up here too, take them out stealth style, we can't have anybody raise the alarm that we are here, it might put us and Gamma; if they're still alive in danger."

"Right I understand you," Chris responded. He picked up his lancer and looked back at Damon, "I want you to stay here and don't make a noise until I instruct you further, got it?" Damon wasn't about to lose out on the first combat of the mission, "But I can help, you said there two of them, we can take them out together." Chris shook his head, "No way, you're too green, just stay here I'll be back in a sec."

Damon knew he wasn't going to win so he just nodded his head in agreement, and sat back as Chris began to move forward in a crouched position, darting from tree to tree. Damon quickly tapped into his comm. and listened as his squad took out the small group of locust. "Target neutralized," he heard Marissa say in a calm collective voice. "Tango down!" Christian said quickly over the sounds of something screaming in agony.

Up ahead he heard the sound of a lancer fire and a few seconds later corporal Hylton said, "He's down, rookie get your ass over here." Damon went into a Roadie Run and moved up to where Chris was standing over the corpses of two dead locust drones.

The locusts were gray in color though it was dotted with huge splotches of reddish-orange blood, courtesy of Chris's lancer. One had a bullet hole right through the center of its forehead, which was spilling out an exceptional amount of blood, so much it began to form a puddle around the grubs head. "Like my little artwork, I call it _two dead grubs that didn't stand a chance_," he put his boot on ones chest and smiled at Damon, "Well rookie is this your first time seeing a real live locust?"

Damon nodded fascinated at the corpses. He had seen the locust in training simulations and in the media, but he had never seen a real one. Even dead they were intimidating. They were about 7 feet tall and as muscular as a Gear, and their dark gray skin looked as if it was as hard as rock, though that couldn't be as the lancer had chewed them up pretty well.

"Let's get back and regroup with the rest of the squad," Chris said as he began to walk off. They walked for about five minutes until Chris put up halt hand signal. He brought his hand up to his earpiece and said, "Cspos this is Chris, friendlies comin in from your six." He looked at Damon and signaled to move forward.

Christian was sitting under the bow of an elm tree when the two Gears got to the RV point, "Took you guys long enough, how it went with the patrol?" Chris set his Lancer down and took a seat next to his friend, "Took both grubs by surprise, a few shots into each sealed the deal, and how you and Marissa do?"

The Hispanic Gear smiled and said, "Marissa got the first two by complete surprise, two precise head shots, but then a third one of those bastards who was lagging behind the others came at her, but a quick shot from my Gnasher quickly took care of him." "Quickly, that's a lie," this came from Marissa who was sitting in the low branches of the tree above them, "Cspos shot the grub in the leg then watched as it tried to crawl away, then he curb stomped the poor fellow, I swear you men enjoy other peoples misery."

"Locust aren't people," Chris corrected, "They are subterranean monsters from hell." Marissa gave him a look and replied, "Well you could have just shot him and taken him out of his misery."

"Marissa this is war, and if you can't handle it maybe you should be back doing a pencil pusher job or cleaning the house or you know having babies," Chris said with a smirk on his face. Damon had to stifle his giggles as he watched Marissa's face get red and she made as if she was about to punch Chris, but Sergeant Espinoza quickly intervened. "Marissa couldn't have babies if she wanted to, and it's a good thing we have her, she's one of the best snipers in the COG," He said smiling at her, "And a valuable asset."

Chris raised his hands to show he wasn't trying to start anything; Marissa hopped out of the tree and came down almost on top of Chris who hopped out of the way. "Whatever, lets just get to Gamma's last position," she began to walk north and Christian followed. Chris and Damon kept up the rear, Chris leaned in close to Damon and whispered, "You see rookie this is why woman shouldn't be in the military, when it's their time of the month all hell breaks loose." Damon laughed, but his laugh was cut short when a rock came hurtling at him and got him right in the head. Chris burst into laughter and from the front of the line he heard Marissa say, "Shit did I just hit the rookie? Fuck you Chris you can kiss my ass." Chris just smiled and said, "I gladly would but Christian is here so maybe later."

Damon was lucky that he was wearing his helmet as the rock would've hurt a lot, but all it did was leave him with a partial headache.

The sun had already set by the time the squad reached Gamma ones last position. Chris came to a stop at the edge of a clearing, raising his hand signaling everyone to stop. Christian came forward next to him, "What do we got?" Chris nodded and pointed to a building that stood in the center of the clearing, "Looks like some kind of church."

The church in question was fairly quaint. It wasn't very big, but it had a huge steeple that made up for the small base. It was fairly brown and it looked as if moss had begun to grow in between the cracks and splinters of wood. The church only seemed to posses three windows on the bottom part which seemed quite odd for a church, but then again this church was in the middle of the woods far away from any civilization.

Christian signaled for the whole squad to form up at the tree line before he stared talking, "Alright Hunter, it looks like we got ourselves a church, it looks like this was Gamma ones HQ before they disappeared," He looked over at Damon, "rookie I want you and Marissa to lag back and cover me n' Chris as we breach and clear that church."

"Sir Yessir!" Damon replied, though on the inside he felt he was being left out of any potential action yet again.

Chris and Christian burst across the open ground followed shortly by Marissa and Damon. Damon took a kneeing position in the grass as did Marissa, as Chris and Christian stacked up on the church's only door. Chris nodded towards his sergeant who returned the nod and with a powerful kick towards the doors center he kicked it in.

Chris entered first followed by Christian. There were no gun shots or sign of a struggle, or at least none that Damon could hear from his position outside. After about two minutes Christian radioed over the mic, "its all clear, come on in."

The two Gears entered into the church and were partially taken aback by what they saw. There were jumbles and piles of paper everywhere. Dust filled the air as they entered and if it hadn't been for Damon's helmet air filtration device he might've choked, though the other Gears present who weren't wearing helmets seemed to be to doing just fine. There were a few candles here and there but none were lit, so Christian and Chris had taken out their Zippo lighters and commenced with lighting the candles. When all the candles had been lit, Damon was surprised at how small the church was. It was only two rooms' maybe 12 feet by 12 feet each. Towards the far left were some raggedy decaying stairs that led up to the church's steeple. On the far wall were some writings and a picture of some guy who looked as if he was ascending into the clouds, Marissa was observing the picture with renowned interest.

"That's some interesting stuff here," she remarked putting her hand on the painting and rubbing of some dust to get a better view. "What is it?" asked Christian who was going through some of the papers on the floor. "It seems that this was one of those monastery type things I heard some of the intelligence officers talk about when we were back in Jacinto," she said turning around when she noticed something on the floor. She knelt down a moved some of the paper that was in her way, "Hey Cspos take a look at this, footprints."

Christian came over and he too noticed the criss cross of boot prints that had settled in a particular dusty spot. They looked about the size of an average Gears foot size, "Looks like Gamma was here."

"But where are they now?" Damon asked from the other room where he and Chris were exploring.

"I don't know," Christian replied standing up, "but the best thing we can do now is get some shut eye and we will look for them tomorrow," He walked over to a table where he placed his Gnasher shotgun, "Marissa you got first watch, I'll get next, then the rookie and last Chris."

"Fine by me," Chris said flopping himself down on one of the church benches. Marissa began the hazardous trek of climbing the flight of stairs to the top of the steeple where she could get a better view of the surrounding area. The rest of the Gears dispersed throughout the church to get some rest.

It was about an hour later when Christian went up to get Marissa. He made the dangerous trip up the stairs, made even more dangerous by the more weight he had on then Marissa. He got to the top and was surprised to find that it was quite spacious. From outside he had thought it would be cramped, but Marissa was laying out flat on her stomach with her sniper placed near her for when she needed it.

Christian snuck up behind her and tickled her exposed neck; she jumped up and turned around. But when she saw who it was she smiled and landed a wet kiss on Christian's lips. "Where have you been, I assumed you would be keeping me company on my watch," She said sounding kind of disappointed. "I would've been here sooner but the rookie hadn't fallen asleep for a while so I had to wait before I came here." She smiled again and said, "Aww whatever, come here." They embraced and kissed for about five minutes straight before Christian suddenly remembered something. "Wait hold on," he said reaching into his pockets. He pulled out the ring and got on one knee. Marissa put her hands over her mouth and her eyes lit up. Marissa Mayuga will you do the honors of marrying me?" He asked with the sincerest voice he could put on. Marissa literally screamed out the answer, "Yes! I will," she hugged him and started to kiss him. He struggled to get her off so he could place the ring on her finger. She eyed it a smiled from ear to ear. She looked up at Christian who looked relieved and was about to kiss him when she suddenly stopped.

Christian saw the look in her face and knew something was wrong, "What is it?" she lowered her voice to a whisper and leaned in close to him, "Locust." 


	4. Revelation

Revelation

Christian watched as a Theron Guard came out of the dark tree line. Its scarlet armor reflecting off the moonlight, essentially making it an easier target to spot. This is how Christian spotted it. Therons were considered the elite of the locust horde. They were slightly bigger then an average drone, but due to the presence of their armor they seemed huge compared to the lower grub. They led the regular drones into battle and if memory served him correctly they were a lot tougher to kill. Christian remembered during the lightmass offensive that it took nearly his entire squad to put down full fire just to take out one.

The Theron took a knee at the edge of the clearing and put up its hand. It seemed that the whole forest suddenly came alive with all different kinds of locust. It was mostly drones, armed with Lancers, Hammerburst and a few Longshots in the mix. They formed up around the Theron without making a noise. Something that must have taken a lot of discipline on their part.

"How much do you count?" Christian asked Marissa who had better eyes then him.

"About 30 maybe 40, but there's too many for us to even think of going up against." She replied with a hint of fear in her voice.

Christian quickly took in his surroundings and accessed the situation. The church wasn't that big so his squad should be able to defend. There were only four entrances into the church, one door and three windows. Two of the windows were near the door so as long as those windows were covered then the door didn't have to be guarded. That left the window that was towards the back of the church as the only other problem, he didn't think that the locust would be able to flank around the back of the church without getting spotted as there was too much open ground for them to cover. But just incase he would station the rookie to guard that window. Also he noticed that the church was smack dab in the middle of the clearing, and the trees only formed a half circle around the clearing, the other half of the clearing was bordered by a steep cliff that went down into more forest below. With coordinated fire from below and Marissa putting down sniper fire from up here in the church tower they might actually survive this.

"Stay here, pick your targets when I give the signal, stay on squad com too," Christian ordered as he made his way down stairs. Marissa nodded and put her orange tinted sniper goggles, which was resting on her forehead, over her eyes and took a crouched position.

Christian sprinted down the stairs as fast as he could. He leapt past the last flight of stairs and landed with a thump on his feet. Myles was awakened by the coming of his Sarge and almost fell out of his makeshift bed of a few chairs cobbled together, "What's going on Sarge?"

Christian sprinted towards the window and peeked out before ducking his head, "Locust a whole shit load of them outside." Chris who had been sleeping with his Lancer on top of his chest was up and ready at the mention of locust. Christian sprinted back over to where the two Gears were.

"So how we doing this, Cspos?" inquired Chris clicking the safety of on his gun. "Right here's the general idea of my plan," Christian said taking a knee, his squad followed suit, "We got four entrances, the three windows and the door." He began making a crudely drawn diagram of the churches frame, on the dusty floor. "The door is placed between these two windows so it necessarily doesn't have to be defended, as we can defend these two windows easily," he marked the door and the two windows, "Chris me n' you will defend these two windows and with Marissa providing sniper support in the church tower we should be able to hold off this attack."

Myles looked over the plan and realized he hadn't been mentioned, "Sir where am I during all this?"

Christian looked up as if noticing the rookie for the first time, "Ah rookie you will be defending this window in the back, don't worry about too many of the grubs flanking around and overtaking your position, there's way too much open ground for too many of them to get by us with out us noticing so you should be good."

"Yessir!" Myles responded with a crisp salute, though on the inside he once again felt he was being cheated out of any action.

"Shit, be quieter," Chris loudly whispered, he turned back to the Sarge, "How you think they know we are here, think they followed us?"

"Nah I don't think so, we would've noticed if we were being tracked," Christian estimated, "though I think that this attack force wasn't for us but for Gamma one, Gamma had about 12 members in it and they probably have been giving the locust hell for a while and now the locust have mustered up a significant counterforce to try to wipe them out."

Chris nodded in agreement as Christian continued, "If the locust think that Gamma is still held up in this building that probably means that Gamma is still alive and out there somewhere."

"Which probably means we have just wasted our time… and possibly our lives coming here," grunted Chris with a hint of annoyance in his voice.

Christian was about to respond, but it was silenced by a primeval roared erupted from outside.

The Latino and black Gear sprinted towards the two front windows, Chris on the left and Christian on the right, Myles had all ready gone to the back room to cover the window there. The Latino Gear switched on squad com, "Alright Hunter here they come, and don't fire till my mark."

About half a dozen of the drones had moved out of the tree line and were moving across the clearing fast, a few were firing potshots from their assault rifles as they ran.

A few bullets sizzled past Christian, he raised his Gnasher shotgun and uttered over squad com, "Give 'em hell Hunter!"

In unison, Christian, Chris and Marissa opened fire with their respective weapons. Christian's Gnasher pumped out shot after shot, Chris's Lancer crackled to life as he fired at the two closest locusts, Marissa snapped of two quick successive shots with her Long Shot, dropping two grubs.

Chris ducked down as a hail of bullets filled the window space, then he popped back up and returned fire at the incoming drones. He wasn't the best shot but he wasn't bad either and he made quick work of the last few drones with a few well placed headshots.

_"Charge you worthless scum, move!" _The Theron yelled using the butt of his Torque bow to _urge_ the lower ranking locust forward. More Locusts charged and the Gears returned fire. Firing in quick burst Chris put down another drone and then another. He was about to duck down to reload his lancer when he noticed that a drone with a Hammerburst was had broken from the main group and was closing the distance fast to the church. He fumbled for his snub pistol. He brought it out and aimed down sight at the approaching locust. He fired once but the shot bounced of the armor of the grub. "Oh shit," he mumbled, but right as the drone was about to get its shot off, its head exploded. Chris recognized the work of a Longshot, "Good ole Marissa."

Christian fired his Gnasher at the nearing Locust, the shotgun shells spraying out at a short distance but able to cover a wider area. Locust after locust fell, occasionally a bullet would ping of his armor here and there but the power armor was meant to be tough and it was able to prevent any real injury.

Christian ducked behind his window sill to reload his shotgun. He had only been able to put two shells in when the door to the church blew inward. He turned just as a drone with a lancer came through spraying. He put a shot right in the creatures chest sending it flying against the wall. Suddenly the Theron came through the door way. Christian brought his gun up to fire, but with surprising speed the scarlet armored locust grabbed the barrel of the gun forcing it downwards. Christian pre maturely fired into the ground, and the Theron hit Christian right in the cheek with a powerful right hook. He stumbled back, but wasn't able to recover before the Theron sent a quick jab to his stomach knocking him flat.

Christian lay there dazed. Through hazy vision he saw the Theron lift its boot in preparation to curb stomp him. He closed his eyes in defeat and prepared for the inevitable. But it never came, he opened his eyes and saw the Theron convulsing then suddenly a chainsaw bayonet came diagonally through the locust's body. It fell to the floor in a gory mess.

Christian looked from the bloody corpse to his savoir, Chris stood there with a little reddish orange blood on his armor and a little on his face. He offered a hand to Christian, who accepted it and was helped, pulled up. Chris picked up the fallen drones lancer and handed it to Christian with a slight annoyed look on his face, "Next time I won't be there to save your ass."

Christian was quite surprised that his best friend would say something like that, but since the death of Ricky Chris has been a lot more serious when it comes to battling. Both Gears retook their positions at the window to continue the battle against the locust swarm.

Private Myles ducked as a few bullets whizzed into the back room from the front. That was pretty much all the action he had got since the start of the attack. He had guessed the Sarge had put him back here to keep out of the veteran Gears way but now he was certain that was the reason. "Son of a bitch," he said ducking down as more bullets whizzed in. After that salvo he peered up again. "There would be no locust that would run all the way around the church to swarm through one back window," he thought to himself.

Suddenly Myles noticed that a spot in the ground was beginning to cave inward and the ground began shaking. "Shit E-Hole!" he yelled out to no one in particular. The hole became wider and out came six locust drones. The drones moved slowly forward with the best stealth they could give, though do to there size and excessive growling they weren't doing a very good job.

Myles ducked down, "I don't think they saw me, or they would've started firing," he thought to himself. He quickly checked if his lancer was full of ammo then he sighed to himself and prepared for his first firefight.

The lead drone was approaching the window, when suddenly he was cut down with a burst of fire right across his unprotected torso. He went down roaring in agony and only had to see who his attacker was before he took another burst in the face killing him instantly. The other locust looked down at their fallen comrade then at the window opening where the fire had come from. There in the window frame a helmeted Gear stood poised to fire again. The locust roared and charged.

Myles had been quite surprised that his blind shot through the window had hit anything, and when he was rewarded with a cry of pain he had to see how he had fared on his first shots. That had been a mistake, he had only hit one of the drones and the rest were standing around their comrade when he popped up. They had noticed him and now they charged straight at him. He pulled his lancer up quickly a popped of a few shots. It caught the lead locust, but he only stumbled before catching himself and rejoining the charge. The other locust fired their weapons as they closed in on the opening. Myles felt the shots pepper of his armor, but they didn't penetrate. "Thank god," he thought to himself as he returned fire. The locusts were tough, but without any cover they were nothing. Soon all but one remained; Myles sighted on him and pressed the trigger, nothing. "Shit," he yelled out realizing he had exhausted all the ammo in the gun currently and needed to reload. The locust grub, who had pretty much realized it was in a precarious position with no way out, smiled and raised its lancer to fire at the gear.

BAM! Its head disappeared in a mist of red. The headless body fell to the floor, as Damon stand there awestruck. "Dam it rookie, you would have been grub food, if I hadn't decided to take a peek at your progress," Marissa said over squad comm. Damon let out a weak, "Thanks," in return and sighed.

Back in the front things weren't looking to well. Christian had confiscated the Torque Bow from the chain sawed Theron Guard and was putting it to good use. He charged up the weapon then peeked around the corner and fired. The armor-piercing projectile that resembles a large arrow (or rather, a Crossbow Bolt) flew out of the weapon and in the blink of an eye penetrated into the skin of a grappler drone. The grappler only had a half second to look at the arrow before it blew up into gory bits and pieces.

The Hispanic gear cracked a smile, but it soon vanished when he had to duck out of the way as dozens of rounds came through the opening. The volume of incoming fire was intense. The locust realized that they outnumbered the gears by a lot and were really pouring it on now. More had joined the fight since the original group, even a couple boomers; yelling out their signature, "BOOM!" as they fired their boomshots grenade launchers. The weapons high explosive round screeched out and impacted on the churches walls shaking the whole place.

"Fuck, this place is gonna fall," Chris cried out over squad comm. Christian had never seen the black gear so stressed, "Calm down Chris, we can hold." Lead was flying through the air like a swarm of angry wasp.

"Sarge, I'm pinned down hard, I can't provide sniper support anymore," Marissa said, her voice barely audible over the gunfire. "Right, Marissa reposition up front with us if you can," Christian said charging up the Torque Bow for another go. He popped up quickly and fired, but he had to duck so fast that he hadn't had much time to aim. But the projectile took off the head of a grenadier. His vanquished foe fell in a bloody heap and dropped his shotgun. The weapon went off and the blast went into an advancing boomer, decapitating the monstrosity.

Chris fired into the oncoming horde of locust. He didn't have to aim he just fired his lancer with reckless abandon. Bullet holes dotted his cover giving it the look of Swiss cheese. "There's way too many of them!" he yelled out but the sound of his voice fell on deaf ears. No one could hear him over all the fighting. He ducked down and reloaded; he was on his last clip. He popped back up and fired into the oncoming horde. They were literally only a few meters from the window firing. Chris could actually hear some of their horrid grunts and laughs as they realized they were about to slaughter this human. Chris fired with the intensity of a mad man; he knew this was his final stand.

Suddenly the ground outside of the church exploded. Locusts were thrown every which way, some going straight up at least fifteen feet in the air. Chris was blown back from the window and skidded to a halt towards the back of the room. He was seeing stars and his vision was blurry. Marissa appeared over him and offered a hand which he groggily took. "You ok man?" she asked with a look of concern on her face. Chris nodded and picked up his lancer from the floor. The two made their way back to the window Chris was guarding, now a gaping hole. "Who the fuck set that off?" Christian demanded angrily, as he and Damon joined them. The two other gears just shrugged, and looked outside at the carnage.

The explosion had created a giant crater in the middle of the clearing. There was dead locust everywhere, some with missing limbs, others burned to a crisp. There were a few stragglers who were mopping around in a daze of confusion. The gears of hunter raised their weapons and prepared to fire, but suddenly from the forest across the clearing, the lights of four lancers firing took out any of the stragglers.

"Who is that?" Myles asked completely bewildered. The rest of the squad was pondering the same thing.

A gruff voice spoke through their comm. "This is Gamma one-one, we are coming out of the tree line now, any COG forces in the Church hold your fire."


End file.
